Best Offlane Heroes – Dota 2

Before we go over the Best Offlane Heroes, let's go over exactly what Offlane actually means. The offlane is the lane where the creeps are the furthest removed from your tower, and much closer to the enemy tower. Radiant offlane is top left of map, Dire offlane bottom right. On the offlane you have a long walk back to the safety of the tower, while your enemy is much closer to his. It is therefore very hard to kill the enemy hero, and you are much more vulnerable.

At the end of each writeup for each of the Best Offlane Heroes, I have also included their difficulty levels. If you are new to DOTA 2, then start with Easy or Medium Heroes, and then once you master these, it's ok to move to hard, and finally very hard. Do make sure you have mastered them however, as otherwise your team will suffer greatly at an amateur playing on a master level pro hero.

Best Offlane Heroes for Dota 2

The first of our Best Offlane Heroes is going to be Bounty Hunter. Bounty Hunter is common melee offlane hero, capable of dealing high amounts of single target burst damage. Thanks to his ability to become invisible, he can leach a generous amount of experience while keeping at a safe distance.

Useful offlane tips:

It is possible to get the bonus damage of Shadow Walk twice by immediately attacking once during the fade time. This is very useful for harassing enemy supports. Note that his only work when Shadow Walk is level 1 or 2.

Don't underestimate Shuriken Toss's damage (Q) at level 2. It deals 200 damage at level 2, which is actually really high for a level 2 spell.

Don't be afraid of being aggressive, Bounty has a lot of killing potential. If the enemy supports aren't trying to zone you out, keep harassing using Jinada (W) and Shadow Walk (E).

The next in our list of Best Offlane Heroes is going to be Clockwerk. What makes Clockwerk a top tier offlane hero is his ability to control the lanes combined with his natural tank-ness.

Unlike Bounty Hunter, Clock can do fine in all situations such as 1v1, 1v2, and trilanes. He does extremely really well in 1v1 situations thanks to Battery Assault (Q) and Power Cogs (W). In 1v2 situations, squishy enemy supports can be easy kills if you can bait them into coming close to you. Trilanes can be a bit harder but still manageable due to being able to farm from a distance with Rocket Flare (E).

Useful offlane tips:

Battery Assault (Q) can deal up to 240/560/880/1200 damage. If you can Power Cog a single enemy, that's a lot of damage you're dealing out.

You can use Power Cogs (W) to burn your enemies mana and deal moderate mana.

Power Cogs (W) can also be used to block your own creeps, making the creep equilibrium work in your favor, hence creating a safer farming space.

Rocket Flare (E) can be used to scout and to block Jungle Creeps from spawning. This very useful if the enemies are stacking and pulling.

Difficulty: Medium

Offlane method: Creep blocking, Ranged farming.

The next of our Best Offlane Heroes is Dark Seer, who does well in most situations. He can farm safely thanks to Ion Shell (W) and can flee without a hassle from Surge (E).

The main difference between Dark Seer and many other offlane heroes is his strong presence in teamfights.

Useful offlane tips:

If laning, be sure to harass enemies with Ion Shell (W) by placing it on their melee creeps (for melee heroes) or ranged creeps (for ranged heroes). Additionally, placing Ion Shell on the second allied melee creep to arrive at the creep line is a good way to push the lane as well as create a moving damage-dealing creep that will chase enemy heroes.

Be sure to take at least 1 early point of Surge (E), as it can help escaping ganks and chasing, as well as giving more mobility.

Wall of Replica (R) is usually leveled after you've maxed both Ion Shell (W) and Vacuum (E), as early game illusions don't deal much damage. Additionally, the relatively high mana cost at lower levels can be prohibitive, as you won't be left with much mana to cast other spells.

Difficulty: Medium

Offlane method: Temporary max movement speed, Safe farming.

Doom is a great offlane hero, but relies heavily on your overall knowledge of the game. Unlike our other Best Offlane Heroes, Doom doesn't really have an escape mechanism or an ability to get gold/exp from afar. He gets shut down a lot easier than other heroes.

So knowing how much damage or how many stuns/slows your enemy(s) have is really important for an offlane doom.

Useful offlane tips:

Always wait until you know what lane you are dealing with before putting a point into your skills. If it's a relatively easy lane, get Devour (Q). If they have lots of killing potential get Scorched Earth (W) for safety.

Scorched Earth (W) is both an offensive and defensive spell. Don't be afraid to use it to kill a squishy support.

In most cases, leveling Scorched Earth (W) over Devour (Q) is better simply because the extra gold from Devour (Q) is insignificant.

If your lane is pushed and it is safe, you can do to the enemy jungle and Devour (Q) their creeps for extra gold and exp.

Difficulty: Hard

Offlane method: Guaranteed gold, Temporary tankiness.

Moving away from melee to ranged offlaners, we start to see creative ways to stay alive while able to gain gold/experience.

Weaver is really slippery hero who excels at being annoying to face up against. To kill a Weaver requires well timed spells as well as detection.

Useful offlane tips:

While in Shukuchi (W), position yourself to use your Geminate Attack (E) as soon as Shukuchi ends.

When escaping with Shukuchi (W), try not to run past any enemy creeps or heroes, as they can see where you are traveling by looking what units you are damaging.

Timing Geminate Attack (E) for creep kills is hard to master, so its generally best used to harass enemy heroes.

Difficulty: Easy

Offlane method: Invisibility, Temporary max movement speed.

Windrunner (aka ranger) is a great overall offlaner. She has a long ranged nuke, a good escape mechanism, and a good disable spell. Powershot (W) allows her to farm safely from a distance, and WIndrun (E) allows her to escape when enemies try to kill her.

Useful offlane tips:

Windrunner is very squishy, so you need to know how to position yourself so that even if you do get stunned, you're in a safe area.

In an escape, try to save Windrun (E) for last. Let your enemies blow all their spells first so that their auto attacks will miss when you Windrun (E).

You can use Windrun (E) as an offensive spell such as tower diving to secure a kill.

Try to hit enemy heroes when you are farming with Powershot (W).

Difficulty: Easy

Offlane method: Temporary high movement speed, Ranged farming.

Lone Druid is is not an easy hero to play especially in the offlane. However, unlike Doom, Lone Druid requires you to be able to micro manage your Spirit Bear (Q), which makes him one of the harder of our Best Offlane Heroes.

Using your Spirit Bear (Q) to pull enemy creeps to your lane will allow you to gain reliable gold and experience. Knowing how to micro, creep pull, and last hitting under the tower is really important when playing Lone Druid.

NEVER let the enemy get close to you. Once they are in your zone, you are pretty much dead. So use your Spirit Bear (Q) to deter attacks or micro it to body block.

An Orb of Venom allows your bear to harass and chase enemy heroes very effectively.

Re-summon your Spirit Bear(Q) if it gets too low. In the early game it's better to re-summon than to send it back to base.

Don't forget you can cast Return on your bear if its in danger, this is useful when taking towers.

Spirit Bear's (Q) potential peaks when its level 3. If you can get an Entangle, it's an easy kill on a support.

It's almost always better to stay in True Form (R) after you have boots, since the gain 450 health and 4 armour (with level 2 Synergy (E)) at level 6.

Difficulty: Hard

Offlane method: Creep pulling, Ranged farming.

Playing Nature's Prophet as offlaner is probably one of the hardest things to master in Dota 2. I'm sure you've seen him as a jungler, but there is a massive difference in skill between the two.

As offlaner, Natures Prophet can maximize the ability to gain exp from lane while freeing up space in the jungle for your team's supports. He can cause huge disruption for the enemy safe lane, with his ability to creep pull, creep block, and harass with Nature's Call (E) while staying at a safe distance. While he's the hardest of our Best Offlane Heroes, he's also considerably the best - once you master him.

Useful offlane tips:

You need to be able to micro manage, and know the proper timing for Nature's Call (E) to properly play Natures Prophet.

Sprout(Q) grants you fly vision of an area, this is good for scouting potential ganks.